Materials

Miniature Painting

Islamic miniature painting is generally understood to mean small paintings that are or once were part of a manuscript, used as a frontispiece or an illustration for a text. Drawings and individual paintings have, however, also been preserved. They were either sketches or were intended to be placed as independent works of art in an album.

The miniatures usually had a paper base, but cardboard and in rare cases cotton or silk cloth were also used. The brilliant colors are usually opaque.

The oldest preserved miniature paintings were made in around the year 1000, but not until around 1200 were they found in larger numbers. Islamic miniature painting is often categorized rather summarily into four regional schools: the Arab, the Persian, the Indian, and the Ottoman Turkish.

Miniature from a copy of the Ramayana. “Sita Shies Away from Hanuman, Believing He is Ravana in Disguise”

India, Mughal; 1594
Leaf: 37.8 × 25.6 cm

The Great Mughal Akbar was known for his religious tolerance, and he did what he could to give his fellow Muslims insight into Hindu culture. He had holy Hindu scriptures translated into Persian, and he presented the magnificent copy of the Ramayana from which this miniature comes to his mother in 1594.

Sita, wife of the protagonist, Rama, has been captured by the evil demon Ravana. The artist displays unusually great psychological insight in dramatically depicting the moment when with horror Sita begins to doubt whether it really is her good friend, the monkey general Hanuman, standing before her.